Police Chief Addresses Crime Stats, Demographics

TYLER – Tyler Police Chief Jimmy Toler spoke Tuesday evening about crime statistics and racial demographics for citations issued in 2016. KETK reports Toler was the guest as the Tyler Together Race Relations Forum held a meeting on those topics. Toler says transparency is key for the department as it makes fostering diversity a priority of 2017. “We go through cultural diversity training, we have outreach, but you know any time that we meet with our officers and we meet with our employees, we talk about their performance and we talk about issues that come up,” Chief Toler said.

In 2016 there were 24,772 motor vehicle stops. 6,498 were African Americans, 13,108 were Caucasians, 4,742 were Hispanics, 220 were Asians, 135 were Native Americans, and 69 were Middle Easterners. Forum chair Jeff Williams says forming a bond between police and civilians is how residents strengthen the community.